The brief quiz linked to by Rarebear is a good start, but there are more comprehensive self tests out there.
As someone who has grown up in an alcoholic family system who needed to figure out how to avoid following in their footsteps, here’s a few clues.
As pointed out earlier, if you can’t do without it for a few weeks, that’s a hint.
If you can’t unwind without the help that alcohol brings, that’s a problem.
People can play all sorts of mind games with themselves because alcoholism is, above all else, a disease of denial.
It doesn’t have as much to do with how much one drinks or how often because numbers vary from on person or another. It’s easy to play around with numbers and still fool yourself.
Alcoholism revolves around WHY you drink. That’s a more profound question but also more accurate. If you try to go without the beer for awhile and can’t , that’s a clue to you that you are specifically using it as a substitute for living life fully.
Most people have a variety of ways to unwind after a long day of work. If alcohol is you’re only way to do this that’s not healthy for you.
Once you can determine why you drink, you can then determine if this is healthy or not healthy for you.
The fact that you’re questioning yourself about this may be the clearest clue for you that alcoholism is a possibility.
You should also know that AA has what are called “open” meetings where anyone can attend regardless of whether they identify as alcoholics or not.